Privacy and the database state in the news

Privacy and the database state in the news

Daily Archives: April 22, 2012

David Leppard writes in the Sunday Times about Charles Farr, who he described as ‘the Home Office’s top “securocrat”‘: It’s no secret in Whitehall that the grandiosely titled communications capabilities development programme was Farr’s “policy baby”. In fact, it was a rehash of an earlier attempt by Farr in 2009 to persuade the then Labour home secretary to build a giant database where the government could hold details of all emails and telephone calls. It obviously needed sensitive handling, but its delivery was bungled by Farr’s office and it was dumped by Labour after an uproar. When a new government was elected he tried to resurrect the plan — with similar results. A similar lack of deftness befell Farr’s efforts to develop “Prevent”, a controversial plank of the government’s counterterrorism policy that aimed to identify and thwart thousands of young Muslim men who might be vulnerable to violent extremism. A […]